What to say

colex

What do I say when I'm contacting wedding venues. I want to start looking around even though we decided on April or May of 2015 (either Friday evening or Saturday evening, I prefer Saturday but okay with both). We have a total budget of 15-20k and are inviting about 100 people. I want to keep prices somewhat low because we are also looking into buying a house as well. 

So help! I talk to little kids all day (I teach Kindergarten) so sometimes I feel like a fool when I talk to adults :-/ 

RMMJS

Send some emails to places that you are considering or would consider.  Tell them that you just got engaged and are starting to look around.  I did this.  I never mentioned my budget, but asked for their prices and menus.  After narrowing that down, I contacted specific places for tours.  

I ended up booking the Manor in West Orange.  I am having a Friday night wedding in July 2013 and felt they were fair.  They did not negotiate, but every other place I visited did.  

Good luck!

colex

Thank you! 

I have my mom to negotiate, she's fantastic at that, so I am grateful.

She once was able to get an entire grocery bill for free because the cashier bagged things oddly and crushed half of her items,

LuckyGirl1713

I started by looking thru venues on the knot and then googling. I wrote down every place that I liked and then visited their websites and googled each one individually so that I knew they could accommodate our wedding guest list and had the must haves that my FI and I had decided on.  Then I called and made appointments to visit them  My FI and I visited 8 places before deciding on The Atrium in West Orange.  And we went to a food tasting and bought both set sof parents there before finally booking the place.  We did negotiate with them and were able to lower the price a bit which was awesome!

And I did this over a few weeks in 2011 and our wedding is April 2013.

silver0319

I recently went through the same experience.  I talked to a friend (who is an event planner and recent bride), and she recommended reaching out to all the venues on my list by email first.  I sent an email to each venue stating that FI and I were in the beginning stages of wedding planning, when we wanted to have wedding, our estimated number of guests, etc.  I never once mentioned my budget, and was able to weed out the out of price range venues from the emails alone.  After we narrowed down the list, we were able to start venue visits.  I communicated with all venues/wedding coordinators primarily via email.  Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions, need any venue suggestions, etc.